What's it like having your baby born around Christmas?

[Shanti]

(Mods I wasn't sure where to put this thread? Pls move if you need to )

Just curious to know what is it like to have a baby born around December, and particularly around Christmas time? Late December? Being Christmas, busy time of the year, and New Years....

When pregnant with a December bub, did you get questions like "oooh you are having a baby born around Christmas???" and annoying questions like that?

Also, do you then have to put your child back a grade at school seeing as they are born so late in the year?? I know it's up to the parents and individual decision anyway

I am asking this purely out of curiousity! Initially DH and I weren't keen on having a baby born in december as it's a busy time of the year for us with our business however because we would love a baby so very much, we aren't going to try and 'prevent' it from happening and if it is meant to happen it will! :P
(only asking this as if we were to conceive, hyperthetically, in this new cycle we would be due around 25 Dec!!! )

I can only imagine a child born in December gets spoilt rotten with double the presents!!!

[feeb]

I have a few frineds with ther birthdays near christmas and they always have said that they only get 1 present from family for a combined one. I personally always buy them seperate presesnts as my thought is they give me a birthday prsesnt in march and a christmas present in december so why shoudlnt they get 2 pressies!

I have said to DH if we ever have a baby in december we will make a big thing of birthday also.

[Willow]

DD was actually due on Christmas Day! Thankfully, she decided to wait it out and arrived on 4 January! And yes, I got heaps of annoying comments while I was prg, that week or so of xmas and new year was one of the longest weeks of my life!! LOL.

To be honest the only problems I've come across are:

• She gets all her gifts/parties/excitement etc during those few weeks of the year then has to wait a whole year for it all to come around again. We've actually started putting things away for her so we can get them out in the middle of the year, otherwise she just gets bored with everything and has nothing new to play with.
  
  
• It can get a bit overwhelming for her - we noticed in particular this year, now that she is a bit older and understands, that she was getting so many presents, every time someone came over she'd say "ooooh, a present for me?!' LOL!
  
  
• She will always miss out on having a bday cake at playgroup, preschool etc because it falls in the school holidays. For the same reason, it can be tricky organising her bday parties because a lot of people are away or I worry they'll be completely over the silly season by then.

Because she didn't arrive till Jan, we'll send her to school the year she turns 5.

But hey, that's her bday, that's who she is and we wouldn't have changed it or waited if we'd known this was how it would work out.

[~Trish~]

Hey Renee, I know this will sound weird, but I was thinking of you today and thought "Renee could end up with a December baby, I wonder what that would be like?" LOL!

My step-bro was born on boxing day and he usually gets one combined pressie, but he is older and doesn't really care. I think your child would just be used to it and I'm sure you and your DH would make a big deal of him or her if you do end up with a Christmas baby!

[Nicambhar]

My DS was born on Christmas Eve. I was so depressed being in hospital over christmas and especially since my birthday is boxing day. I had a c/s so was stuck in hospital while all my family continued their christmas celebrations.
My DS gets left out every year and always gets a combined gift from my family and usually gets forgotten by dinner time when everyone is full of alcohol. My family celebrates christmas on christmas eve so you can see my peeve here. Then when it comes to my birthday, everyone is so tired that they forget it too. I had my first birthday party ever on my 30th, even though it had to be two weeks before my actual birthday so people could come.

In saying all that, it's what you make of it really. I let my mum's tradition over rule my son's birthday for years and as of last christmas I have decided that my son's birthday is more important and it's his day so we celebrate his birthday now ourselves and my family have their christmas.
We ended up keeping my son back and doing an extra year of pre school because he wasn't ready to move ahead. Best thing we did for him because he just wouldn't have kept up.

[aussienic]

I was due the 16th Dec... I got all the oooo Xmas baby things but due to having a c.s I wouldn't have had her then anyways. She was meant to come on the 3rd but came in November on the 20th..

anyways.. It was nice.. Olivia was around 5 weeks at Xmas time. and I think thats a good age to have a newborn at such a busy time..

We were organized though and had all the presents ect bought well before December ( Well most of them)

I didn't find Olivia got any more presents, If anything she didn't really meet any of the family till Xmas day and thats when they gave over thier baby gifts

[pansy]

My sister always said as a child that she felt sorry for kids who were born around christmas...why I have no idea..But when she fell pregnant,you guessed it she was due 13th Dacember..She was ok about it as it wasnt too close to christmas..Well her DD decided she would arrive on the 23rd December and my sister had to stay in hospital over christmas....

She had her first birthday last yr and they had a party for her and made sure it was a big deal..She has had some family members on her DH's side say they would buy 1 present and combine birthday and christmas and she has made it quite clear that the 2 are to be kept seperate..

[morgan78]

Its definately a bit of a pain, My DP is on the 28th and my DD decided that she was his birthday pressie and my DS is 5th Jan (what was i thinking ) so basically we have to save all year just to afford xmas and birthdays which is made even harder as DP is a subbie so doesn't work for the 2 weeks over xmas & ny. But we always make an effort to separate xmas and birthdays. parties for the kids can be a little bit of a let down as yes lots of people are away or have other commitments. Not sure about the school thing yet still got a couple of years to think about it.

[Muppity]

DH's birthday is on 28th and so is his nephew.

DH says that it used to worry him because although his family turned it into a special day for him when he was younger it meant that he could never have a birthday party with his friends because they were never around.

Last year was the first time I have experienced both Christmas and Birthday with his nephew and it was so over the top. In an effort to compensate for having Christmas and Birthday so close together there were about a million presents and the poor little guy didn't know where to turn. It was just extraordinary the amount of stuff that he got.

I told Dh that night that from now on he isn't getting more than a card from us for the next few years and we will give him something special some other time because we are far too generous but I can't be bothered curbing that so at least he will know who it is from and be able to focus on whatever it is for at least a moment.

[melham74]

I have December full of b'days. DS on th 10th DH on the 16th FIL 18th nephew on the 21st and DS1 on the 29th and then my freinds son on the 30th. My DS wa due on the 21st same as my nephew, but I was induced on the 29th they wanted to induce me new yrs eve but that would have been the change over to 2000 and I wasnt going into all that hype LOL. I find Christmas we tend to have my family Christmas about 2 weeks before christmas at the beach mainly because we are all with partners ect and my sisters kids go to their dad every second christmas we all celebrate my sisters birthday and my nephews then as well. With DS1 we have a small party just us and my best friend and her children. DS2 in actually the 19 th JAn their is 13mnths between them so we pick a date between the end of Dec and the 19th Jan and have a party for the two of them where all the family come ect then on the 19th we again have a small party for DS2. I found with school that we werent going to keep him back another year and sent him to grade 1 but after the first term he wasnt coping and we put him back to preschool, my freind also did the same with her Dec bub, the preschool teacher told us that was more common for boys born late in the year as girls seem to cope alright.

[DiannaQ]

I have a Jan 7 baby and my niece is 23 Dec and if we (God Willing) fall this month it will be a mid-December baby - I'm sure you will make a big deal about Bubba's birthday regardless and for the people around you who don't - then I just wouldn't worry myself about them at all - afterall a blessing is a blessing regardless of what time of year it is - and I'm sure you feel the same good luck

PS - DS was due on Australia Day (26/1) and decided to come early, I never had any comments about a Xmas baby but that might be because he wasn't due for another month - also weather wise - well it was hot and DS lived in a nappy and singlet ONLY for the first couple of weeks but it made feeding and changing very easy and his immune system was nice and strong by winter

[Shanti]

Thanks everyone for your stories like someone said, it's a total blessing if we get a baby and it doesnt' matter what the due date is....

I guess the only thing I would be worried about is going into labour on Christmas day and there being skeleton staff on in the hospital so noone really around to help!!! lol does that happen??? oh and yes being away from your family around Xmas!! although as long as you have your hubby and baby with you then that's all you need anyway

[curl]

My DD2 was due 18/12/05 but was stubborn and I was induced on Christmas Day instead and she was born on Boxing Day. So far she hasn't felt the impact of being a Christmas baby but I know its early days. Her sister's birthday is in July so it is nicely spaced out while Charlotte will get confused about presents and what came from whom and for what reason. Her first Christmas was a bit of a disaster as everyone kept shoving presents in her little hands to open and she was overwhelmed by the whole thing and cried. Even I couldn't tell you who gave her what and for what reason as it was all a jumble. I have thought a lot about the impact of Char's birthday in the future and there are several things I plan on implementing to hopefully help feel important and special... she won't be ignored. She will start school when she's ready, either when she turns 5 or 6 either way, I don't mind. We, as a family will always celebrate her birthday on her birthday but for parties I plan on bringing things forward a month so she can have parties full of friends from school in November. And under no circumstances are there to be only one present to represent both Christmas and her birthday. They are separate occassions and should be celebrated as such. How unfair is it that other family members get a present at Christmas and on their birthday and Charlotte doesn't. Well, I see I've ranted long enough but I'm sure you can tell its been niggling at me. Some people do already ignore her birthday altogether and it irritates me.

[curl]

Renstar, I must have been still typing while you were posting. As I wrote in my really long post, I was induced on Christmas Day. The reason for this is the doctors didn't want a surprise delivery and I was already overdue. The staff were wonderful, if a little distracted by Christmas but the level of care was still there. The only interaction with actual doctors I had was to insert the gel against my cervix and to help deliver the placenta, the rest was the midwives. My point, you will be in the best of care regardless of the time of year.

[melham74]

on bringing things forward a month so she can have parties full of friends from school in November.

we also do this on the last weekend of school have their birthday party, my sisters and Hubby's idea as they both always missed out

[Snacks]

Hey Ren, Natalie was born on the 27th, which is also her daddy's birthday. DH hated that his birthday was so close to Christmas, but what can you do?
I've decided to give her a few gifts in the middle of the year so she has something to break it up... (I tried just putting things away, but I couldn't help myself!) I think it's a good idea to buy things through the year and save them up for Christmas and birthday too, so that its not as expensive.
I know that DH will always make a big deal out of her birthday because he doesn't want her to miss out. So I'm not worried about the future. I reckon we might have an early birthday party for her in the school years, maybe every other year, so she doesn't miss out on that either.
In terms of the pregnancy, I didn't get annoyed by the questions. If you're pregnant you always get asked the same questions by everyone anyway, so what's one more? And in terms of staff, we had no complaints. Natalie was due on the 20th, and we began to talk about induction. If she hadn't have come on her own, we would've had to wait until New Years to be induced because of all the public holidays, etc. But that didn't bother me.
Hope it happens soon for you!

[Shanti]

Curl - yeah we must have been typing same time perhaps? not sure but thanks so much for your story! thats great to know the hospital care is the same on xmas day as it is any other day of the year, as i suspected it would and should be anyway!!

Thanks everyone for your stories!!! There's many positives to having a baby iN December! and a few other sides to the story aswell lol but i guess it's just a matter of working around it hey...? Anyway it was nice to hear of experiences with babies born around xmas time just incase that is what will happen for our baby.... whatever happens, a healthy baby is all that matters and it's birth date is only a small part of the important stuff :P (does that make sense?!? lol)sorry bit tired... what im saying is that i can't be fussy with the baby's due date, whatever we are blessed with is what we will be more than happy with!! as we want a baby more than anything! as you all can relate to.

** thats a great idea what someone said about having the childs birthday pushed forward 1mth earlier so they can have a kids party etc before everyone goes on holidays etc

[Leanne]

Renstar,

We are all Christmasish babies in our house, I am on the 16th Dec, and DH and Drew are the 6th Jan. At the moment it isn't a problem, and I dont see it becoming one. Drew was originally due on Christmas day and yes I got all those comments like oh that was bad timing, etc. We weren't really in the situation to be fussy about when we fell pregnant so we didn't care.

Yes he is spoilt for 2 weeks a year, lol. I know when I was younger having a birthday so close to Christmas was good because you could ask for joint presents and get something big. I am imagining we will be like that too.

Good luck with TTC! Who knows santa might be dropping you off a bubba too (and us another one if we are lucky )